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Desjardins auditors TOOL-BOX: A wall to wall rejuvenation with VFP
Michel Poiré, January 1, 2001
Michel Poiré, from La Confédération des Caisses Populaires Desjardins, talks to us about the approach they've taken for the TOOL-BOX, their first major Visual FoxPro developement project.
Summary
Michel Poiré, from La Confédération des Caisses Populaires Desjardins, talks to us about the approach they've taken for the TOOL-BOX, their first major Visual FoxPro developement project.
Description
The 250 inspectors and auditors (I&A) of the Conféderation des Caisses Populaires et d'Économie Desjardins du Québec (CCPEDQ) have substituted for the usual large brief-case (called Bertha in their jargon) a portable computer and a set of programmed functions (nicknamed TOOL-BOX) used to perform their mandates. The business domain in a nut shel for a clientel of 1318 caisses and federations:

MandateDeliverableVolume (yearly)
InspectionInspection report925
InspectionInspection report11
AuditFinancial statements1318
AuditIncome tax report1318
AuditFinancial statements11
AuditIncome tax report11

The Tool-Box is at the round-about of a traffic of a huge volume of data which main source is the central computerized system of the Desjardins Acaisses@ network. Data retrieval system (SIVIC) processes daily, weekly, and monthly millions of transactions applyingcriteria querries and/or statistical sampling algorithms. On request for inspection or according to financial year end for auditing, SIVIC downloads the data through an automated dial-up network towards I&A operation centers (Montreal, Levis, Trois-Rivieres). Once restructured and reorganized to meet the Tool-Box=s data bases requirements and merged with data from previous inspections or audits or from other sources (such as centralized Early Warning Systems), the data are made available on floppies to begin the mandate.(project to distribute data via Intranet is ongoing).

The Tool-Box development and implementation project has been planned in 1987 and the current functionalities have been delivered over the years to reach a full coverage of the I&A=s mandates in 1992. This first release was running on a DOS platform with FoxPro and Relational Report Writer (R&R) as development tools. The rejuvenation project was iniated in October 1995, not long after launching of Windows '95, the new T-B=s platform with, for sure, Visual FoxPro and a R&R 32 bits version. The Object Oriented version is to be runned on portable computers ranking from 50 mhz clock speed 486 to Pentium at 90 mhz.

The 2 key objectives set for the project

  1. Use the most former code possible
  2. Reach a performance level at least equal to DOS version
A few Tool-Box figures
  • 352 Forms
  • 288 DBFs
  • 16 Projects
  • 2 Packages (DREAM for financial statements and TAXPREP for income tax report interfacing with related projects)
  • Word processor (Word Perfect)
  • 10 Utilities (data encryption, communication, ...)
Development approach
A projet has first been developed (main.pjx) as the re-usable SYSTEM=S CORE and to set the O-O standards for all other 15 projects. Each project (or sub-system) such as inspection tracking (DI.PJX) has its specific directory and name. The CORE only is compiled allowing thus to SUSPEND it and use the COMMAND window to modify and test quickly any other project .This feature increases significantly the development team productivity. Each project has a built-in hidden container where are stored
  • All components (properties and methods) used in more than one form;
  • Customized objects to open, close, select opening order of all files to be used within the project, such an object exists for each DBF.
This container, a class by itself, is embeded in a form. By doing so, the common code and the data bases (DBF) are available everywhere and at any time, forcing so the re-use of methods. Each project has its own library where are stored
  • The acccess-file-container (described above)
  • The re-usable classes
TOOL-BOX AT A GLANCE
The main MENU has 3 options:
  1. INSPECTION
  2. VERIFICATION (audit)
  3. SYSTEM MANAGEMENT
This last option gathers the utilities:
  1. Back-up
  2. Restore
  3. Delete (cleaning the house)
  4. Communicate (dial via modem)
  5. ....
PROJECT STATUS
A group of users (10) are currently walking through acceptance tests and are trained to Windods 95. Fine tuning the functionalities and adjusting forms, windows, screen, and reports to take their comments into account is the next step.Implementation is planned for September to December 96.

RESULTS (related to objectives)

  • 70 to 80 % of former code have been used
  • Performance level will be reached, but portables, RAM upgrade is a must.
    Michel Poiré, Ccpedq